ICTY witness: Intent to kill in Srebrenica

At the ICTY trial of Radovan Karadzic this week, former Bosnian Serb Army (BSA) captain Momir Nikolic once again proved himself a valuable prosecution witness, much as he had been in a number of proceedings against his one-time fellow officers indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity in Srebrenica.
By Radosa Milutinovic, The Hague

[related-articles]Nikolic's account of the events after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. - in which he participated as security officer - provided the Court with critical – although mostly circumstantial – evidence on the BSA's intent to kill thousands of Muslim prisoners.
To prove Karadzic's responsibility for genocide in Srebrenica, as charged, prosecutors must show that the army under his superior command at the time possessed “genocidal intent” to completely or partly destroy Muslims as an ethnic group.
Credible testimony
Apart from the fact that in 2003 he pleaded guilty to the persecution and killing of Srebrenica's Muslims - being the first Bosnian Serb to do so - Nikolic's credibility as a witness largely stems from his insider's position within general Ratko Mladic's army chain of command at a critical time. Moreover, Nikolic was a member of the so-called “security line” within the BSA through which, according to prosecutors, General Mladic implemented his “genocidal intent” and facilitated the execution of more than 7.000 Muslim man and boys.
Nikolic – who is currently serving his 20 year prison term in Finland - testified that on July 12 1995, the day after the BSA entered Srebrenica, his superior, lieutenant-colonel Vujadin Popovic told him, in the nearby town of Bratunac, that “all Balijas (derogatory term for Muslims) should be killed”. “We even discussed two of the potential killing sites in Bratunac...But, in the end, nobody was killed there”, Nikolic said. Popovic also told him thousands of women and children from Srebrenica would be transferred to Muslim-controlled territories.
In 2010, lieutenant-colonel Popovich was convicted of genocide in Srebrenica by the ICTY. The life sentence he received is under appeal.
Following orders
Mladic and Popovic were in the vicinity of the UN peacekeeping force’s (UNprofor) base in the village of Potoccari where thousands of Srebrenica refugees tried to find shelter from the advancing Serb army. “I saw Muslim men being separated from their women and children, mistreated, beaten by rifle butts, stripped of all possessions and locked inside houses”, said Nikolic, who in assisting in these actions said he was, “carrying out his orders”.
Definite confirmation of the intent to kill prisoners of war, Nikolic told the Judges, came to him the following day in the form of General Mladic's sweeping hand-gesture. Nikolic said he was present when Mladic visited a group of Muslim prisoners in Konjevic Polje village on July 13. “Mladic told them not to worry; nobody will do them any harm and they'll be allowed to go where ever they want...As Mladic went back to his car, I followed and asked him what's going to happen to them. He said nothing, just looked at me and made this sweeping hand gesture”, Nikolic testified, moving his outstretched right hand, palm down, sharply from left to right. The only conclusion he could draw from it, he added, was that the prisoners would be killed.
Revenge killings
Later that day, the first opportunistic killings occurred, Nikolic confirmed, describing how military policeman under his command executed six prisoners they had taken near Konjevic Polje. “I heard a blast of gun fire and then he came and told me: 'I avenged my brother's death”, Nikolic said, adding he did nothing to punish the perpetrator. In the nearby village of Kravica, at about the same time, Bosnian Serb policeman killed around a thousand Muslims.
Nikolic said he overheard Colonel Beara “openly discussing prisoner killing” with Karadzic's civil representative for Srebrenica Miroslav Deronjic. “The question was not if the prisoners will be killed, but where”, the witness recalled.
At the end of his testimony, Nikolic apologised to victims and their families and expressed remorse for his part in a “heinous crime” in Srebrenica. He also said he stands ready to testify in a trial of general Mladic, scheduled to begin on May 14.